Tuesday, November 28th, 2006

Please Mr Postman

I get a lot of promos in the mail. I think my mailman hates me because of this. But that’s beside the point. The point is that while all the music is great – I’m not complaining – it takes up a lot of space. Like A LOT. I also end up with a lot of padded mailers – you know, the manila envelopes with the bubble wrap inside – that I feel bad about tossing if they’re in good shape. So I save those. For what specific purpose, I know not, but again – they take up a lot of room as well. This is an ongoing problem, but one to which I have come up with a solution.

In keeping with the holiday spirit, I am conducting the first maybe-annual Chromewaves “Let Your Mailbox Live Like A Blogger’s” Giveaway & Reader’s Poll. That’s right, I am giving your mailbox a chance to live like mine for a day and get crammed full of stuff you’ve never heard of and may not want. I am giving away the following:

5 large and 5 medium padded mailers, filled with CDs, CD-Rs, stickers, pins, coasters (really). Maybe even a DVD. I think I have some. Hell, maybe I’ll even cram some press releases in there.1

But that’s not all! I have had a stack of t-shirts sitting here for who knows how long and I’m not entirely sure where they came from. But what I do know is they’re brand new and have gots to go. I’ve got the following:

That’s a grand total of twenty prizes. Ho ho ho. For your part, I want you to leave a comment telling me three things:

1) Your top five records of 2006, in order of preference.
2) Your personal taste in music, written in as many expansive, over-hyphenated subgenre descriptors as you can muster. Like, “retro-cosmic-garage-Balkan-hardcore”. Besides amusing me, this will assist me in putting together your prize pack. Just because I get stuff I have no interest in, doesn’t mean you do as well. Though obviously I make no promises that you will enjoy anything I send. And hopefully I’ve got something in the piles of stuff that will suit your tastes.
3) What prize you want – you wanna the t-shirt, you no get the mailer grab bag. You wanna the grab bag, you no get the autographed CD. Just tell me which you’d like the most.

But otherwise, that’s it. This is open to anyone in the world so long as you adhere to requirements 1 and 2. Oh, and use an email address that you’ll actually check – if you’re worried about spambots then write it in the comment all broken up but indentifiable-like. I need to be able to contact you – if I don’t hear back from you within, say, 72 hours, I’ll pick a new winner. Prizes will be awarded by random selection from all qualifying entrants and when something is gone, it’s gone. Large bags go first, then the mediums. But if you want, say, the Metric shirt and it’s gone when you’re selected as a winner but there’s still grab bags available, you’ll get one of those. Trust me, this all makes sense in my head and hopefully it will all pan out hassle-free. This contest will run until midnight, December 8 – I’d hope that I could get everyone’s prizes out to them by the holidays but we’ll have to see.

As for the reader’s poll portion of the contest, I will tally up all the entrants and post the results at a later date. Wholly unscientific and with no bearing on my own list, it should still be interesting to see the tastes of folks who visit here.

And no, I didn’t really feel like writing a proper post for today.

1 – If you are one of the labels or promo companies who sent me these CDs and wish to invoke the old, “this CD is the property of the label and must be returned at their request”, please just send me an SASE and it’s en route back to you.2 – No, I’ve no idea who these guys are either. But it’s a nice shirt.

Top Five
1. The Thermals – The Body, The Blood, The Machine
2. My Chemical Romance – The Black Parade
3. Built to Spill – You In Reverse
4. TV on the Radio – Return to Cookie Mountain
5. Islands – Return to the Sea

Fave Music
post-hardcore-shoe gazing-gobbly gook-meets-canadiania pop beauty with a bit of heart on your sleeve intimacy

My taste in music? First of all, impeccable. haha
I would say alternative-dark-and-broody-acoustic-folkyish-music-that-you-can-dance-to-and-you-just-can’t-keep-yourseld-from-playing-drums-on-the-pots-and-pans-of-you-kitchen-happy-yet-not-too-happy-mindblowindgly-energetic.

I’d like pretty much anything!!! The Autographed CD’s are prefered though.

I guess since you said top five records of 2006, I’ll interpret that my own way into the records I listened to the most in 2006:

1. Wolf Parade – "APTTQM" Didn’t get around to listening to it in 2005, wow. Awesome.
2. The Exploding Hearts – "Guitar Romantic" I think these guys would be huge right now, if they weren’t killed senselessly.
3. Band of Horses – "Everything All The Time"
4. The Plastic Constellations – "Crusades" They’re on the best label out there, Frenchkiss.
5. Ride – "Going Blank Again" – checked it out after the Chromewaves origin post. Had "Nowhere" and "Tarantula" and they didn’t even come close to hitting me like this one.

I’ve decided that my musical preference can be summed up with nasaly, higher-pitched male voices. I just tend to gravitate to weird sounding vocals. Hated the Hold Steady until he started singing on BAGIM…..weird.

1.TV On The Radio – Return To Cookie Mountain
2.A Hawk and A Hacksaw – The Way The Wind Blows
3.David & The Citizens – Untill The Sadness Is Gone
4.Peter Bjorn and John – Writer’s Block
5.Detektivbyrån – Hemvägen EP

The Hold Steady – Boys And Girls In America
Neko Case – Fox Confessor Brings The Flood
The Decemberists – The Crane Wife
Sparklehorse – Dreamt For Light Years In The Belly Of A Mountain
Band of Horses- Everything All The Time

I cut my teeth on the sounds of the British Invasion. Came of age with the late 70s scenes of New York and London…anything influenced by
these periods in any form, shape, or way will probably please my ears.

1. American V – Johnny Cash. The master’s voice comes through with more power and emotion than seems possible.

2. The Crane Wife – The Decemberists. Far from being a departure from their previous work, TCW seems to just have taken everything good about the Decemberists and asssembled it in one place- a feat they’ve not managed before.

3. How We Operate – Gomez. Dripping with perfect pop hooks, Gomez’s newest album isn’t their best by any means, but its certainly head and shoulders above most of the stuff out there.

5. Chulahoma – The Black Keys. I guess it might be more of an EP than an LP, but the Ohio-based garage-blues band hit their stride perfectly on this cover album of blues master Junior Kimbrough.

As for me, I listen to almost anything, although recently I’ve been leaning toward older style rock and roll. (I’ve been obsessed with Marah recently; if they’d released an album this year, it’d be on here.) But I also go for indie stuff, soul, blues…anything, really.

The grab bag sounds like the best thing in there, but it all sounds pretty cool.

Top 5 List:
1.Arctic Monkey’s – Whatever you say, that’s what I’m not (the album rocks from start to finish with exciting song structures – can’t wait to hear this young band mature.)

2.Pilate or Pilot Speed – Sell control for life’s speed (vocals and lyrics have really progressed since their last release, definitely the best concert encore (Koolhaus show) of the year)

3.Thom York – The Eraser (this album grew on me more and more after every listen; satisfied my Radiohead need until the next album is released).

4.Guillemots – Through the Windowpane (disappointed that this album wasn’t released in North America (had to pick it up in Paris), by far the most creative band out there right now; would love to see them tour with Arcade Fire (wouldn’t that be cool).

5.Wax Taylor – Tales of the forgotten melodies (it’s been a long time since some good trip hop was released, very intriguing album)

Guilty Pleasures:
The Killers – Sam’s Town (for some reason I keep putting this cd on – actually i really like it)
Imogen Heap – Speak for yourself (find her voice extremely sexy – massy hall show was great)

Also liked:
Magda – She’s a dancing Machine
Damien Rice – 9

My taste in music really varies depending on the mood I’m in and how cold the walk with the dog is going to be. But normally I’ll always turn to melancholic bands with build-ups in their songs and soothing vocals. Really into guitar based music, German minimal techno and piano/bass based jazz.

Five things I’ve enjoyed this year:
> The Hold Steady’s Separation Sunday which I realise was last year but I’ve been late getting into them.
> The Raconteurs Broken Boy Soldiers – seems an obvious choice but it’s been ages since I’ve heard an album where you want to play every single track again.
> DJ Shadow’s The Outsider – good to hear someone do something really different to what he’s done before
> Michael Franti’s Yellfire – some rather U2-ish tracks on this one, but it also contains his best material since Hiphoprisy
> Club NME presents Dancefloor Distortion mixed by Simian Mobile Disco – this is an odd choice as it was a freebie CD given away by (music paper) the NME but I couldn’t leave it out as I’ve been walking around on public transport with this playing on my walkman grinning from ear to ear for the past few weeks.
>
> Honourable mentions to:
> Johnny Cash’s Hundred Highways and Camera Obscura’s Let’s Get Out of the Country.
>
> How do I describe myself? Well I’m a post-punk, ska, country, reggae indie kid, who secretly likes church hymns. Except on the first Saturday of each month when I only like records by The Fall recorded between 1979 and 1983.

my musical tastes tend to influenced by meterological happenstance. Let me explain: for the grey days of early december matmos fill the bill; for the orangey autumn leafy days angela desveaux is perfect; for the icy damp watery windows days sunset rubdown are ideal; for the humid peel the paint july days tom ze is terrific; for the bluest of blue sky days the islands are it. meteropopindustrocana i suppose but i hate to pigeonhole.

i would love one of the grab bags or an autographed cd would be lovely.

My taste? I would say Frank-like, with a touch of pure Jon-Brion-produced-gleefully-Scandinavian-electro-Franco-
Brazilian-hip-harmony-drenched-intercontinental-sunshine-alt.country-twee-60s-garage-soft-power-pop. In a word: crunk. Or "Judee Sill".

As for the prizes, a grab bag would be at the top, then Dungen, Metric, Wolfmother t-shirts. But I’d really prefer the grab bag

Top 5:
Calexico – Garden Ruins (although a departure from previous albums but listen to this album – it’ll hook ya from the beginning)
Josh Ritter – Animal Years
Califone – Roots & Crowns
A Hawk and a Hacksaw – The Way the Wind Blows
Josh Rouse – Subtitulo

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